Dr. David Katz's nutritional advice

Alternative Medicine
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Since nutrition and health has been brought up now and again, I figured you’d enjoy this. I wasn’t familiar with Katz till a friend pointed him out as an example of science over quackery - from what I’ve looked at he seems like the real deal. Out of curiosity I even signed up for his newsletter and I very rarely do that.
Any of you folks familiar with Dr. David Katz?
Science Compared Every Diet, and the Winner Is Real Food - The Atlantic

David Katz Summary on nutrition from his 2013 book Disease Proof: Healthy Eating by the Numbers: A Summary Less than 30 percent of the day’s total calories should come from fat (less than 7 percent of daily calories from saturated fat and less than 1 percent from trans fat). Forty-five to 60 percent of your daily calories should come from carbohydrates, mostly complex carbohydrates. Fiber intake (for adults) should be 25 to 35 grams per day. At least half, if not nearly all, your daily grain consumption should come from whole grains. Aim for five to eight servings of fruits and vegetables per day, ideally different-colored ones so you can get your fair share of phytochemicals. Fifteen to 30 percent of your daily calories should come from protein. Have at least two servings of dairy products per day, preferably fat-free or low-fat versions. Drink approximately 64 ounces of water per day. Sugar intake (added sugars, that is) should be less than 10 percent of your total calories. Try to keep your salt intake under 2,400 milligrams per day. If you do drink, consume alcohol in moderation: one drink per day for women, up to two per day for men (Note: One drink is defined as a 12-ounce serving of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of liquor.) Eat three to four servings of beans and legumes per week. Have fish and shellfish three to four times per week. Limit your meat (beef, pork, lamb) intake to no more than two meals per week. Eat a serving of nuts and seeds four to five times per week.
http://www.davidkatzmd.com The friend who turned me on to this information shared another tidbit. Apparently for all we hear about main mainstream nutritional recommendations careening wildly decade-over-decade. That's not the case. Cholesterol recommendation reversal is one of the few examples..
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I’m generally very suspicious of physicians who spend a significant percentage of their time writing books for the public. Its not that I don’t think it’s important to do so. Its simply that in order to sell books you have to sell your story and yourself. Generally that means sensationalizing things or hyping things that aren’t true or things which have very little science behind them.
With that said these are all mainstream recommendations. Even though Katz write lots of popular medical and nutrition books there is nothing crazy there that I can see. All I know of his books though are a few brief summaries I came across but on the surface his nutritional information looks Kosher :slight_smile: Looks like you found a good source of dietary information if the rest of his recommendations follow these.
As an aside the cholesterol dietary information you alluded to really is not new although you can certainly be forgiven for thinking so. It seems many in the medical community have been slow to come around to what we have known for at least a few decades ie. that most of your cholesterol is manufactured internally and the amount we get in our diet only contributes a small amount to the total. Its not that dietary cholesterol isn’t important but it makes more sense to focus on dietary elements that contribute a greater percentage to our total cholesterol which is primarily saturated fats and trans fats. Our body uses these as building blocks for the cholesterol it manufactures which makes up most of our circulating bad (LDL) cholesterol. For whatever reason many of the crazy ideas make it to the public forum quickly while important useful information like this takes a lot longer to percolate to the top.

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